You're an aardvark... ('Sesame Street' Wednesday)

Are you an aardvark? Sure! Sure you are!

Anybody who's ever gotten detention in school knows about aardvarks. That's because 'aardvark' was always one of the first words in the dictionary you had to copy down.

Just because 'aardvark' is near the beginning of the dictionary, I learned at an early age how important aardvarks are. It's sort of like how I thought Alabama was a really big state because it's first in alphabetical order.

But seriously, aardvarks are vital to our fragile ecosystem. Aardvarks really are very beautiful and unique animals. They've got big, pointy ears and nice, long snouts.

'Sesame Street' did a live-action sketch about aardvarks in the '70s that portrays this great mammal as defiant in the face of all adversity:



The late Joe Raposo - the legendary 'Sesame Street' songwriter - sings on that sketch. (In addition to the 'Sesame Street' theme and many of the show's songs, Raposo also wrote the 'Three's Company' theme.)

A segment like this these days would probably depict the aardvark as meek and subservient instead of defiant and proud. Nowadays, the media has a fetish for teaching people not to fight back. Unlike in the '70s, we're now raising a generation of wimps.